Zuck's apology, a research paper on IPO shenanigans, and 23andMe's fall from almost $6 billion to near nothingness

At a Senate hearing today about protecting chilren who are online, Meta cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the families of children who had suffered abuse on Meta's apps. “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” he said. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered.”

FTX says it will fully repay its customers, but repayment amounts will be based on the value of currency at the time of the company's bankruptcy, when the markets had already nosedived. FTX had entertained the idea of restarting the platform, but that idea is now dead due to a lack of buyers.

Universal Music Group is threatening to pull its artists from Tik Tok, which could be a big problem for the social media platform given the fact that UMG's artists include Drake, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, and many more. Variety has more here. 

Based on preliminary tests that it has performed, OpenAI says GPT-4 poses "at most" a slight risk of helping people develop a catastrophic bioweapon. (Phew?)

The state of venture capital: A look back at Q4 2023. Q4 brought a close to a particularly turbulent year for the venture capital space. In nearly all measurable metrics, figures were down from the inflated highs of 2021. Here’s what the final numbers from 2023 have to say about the state of venture capital. Get the insights.

SmithRx, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that operates PBM platform for employers to manage prescription drug benefits for their employees, raised a $60 million Series C round. Venrock was the deal lead. BuiltinSF has more here.

Benepass, a five-year-old New York startup that has built a platform for businesses to manage and distribute employee benefits such as wellness, food, and childcare, raised a $20 million round co-led by Portage and Clocktower Technology Ventures, with Workday Ventures and previous investors Threshold Ventures and Gradient Ventures also taking part. More here.

Cultivo, a five-year-old startup based in Pleasanton, Ca., that connects investors with environmental projects aiming to improve biodiversity and carbon capture, raised a $14 million Series A round co-led by MassMutual Ventures and Octopus Energy Generation, with Salkantay Ventures and Peña Verde also contributing. Forbes has more here.

Incognia, a 10-year-old Palo Alto company that whose technology is designed to verify users' identities on mobile apps and thereby reduce fraud risk, raised a $31 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with FJ Labs, Point72, Prosus, and Valor Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $46.5 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Nile, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a tool that SaaS companies can use to manage their data more efficiently, especially those using Postgres, raised an $11.6 million seed round led by Benchmark. TechCrunch has more here.

Owner, a six-year-old Palo Alto startup that offers an online platform designed for restaurants to build their own branded websites and manage online ordering directly, raised a $33 million Series B round co-led by Redpoint and Alt Capital, with additional participation from Horsley Bridge, Activant Capital, and Transpose Platform Management. The company has raised a total of $58.7 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Tau Group, a 10-year-old startup based in Torino, Italy, that is focused on developing environmentally friendly protective coatings for wires made of copper, aluminum, and steel, raised an $11.9 million Series B extension round. CDP Venture Capital and Santander Alternative Investments co-led the deal. More here.

Vital Interaction, a 15-year-old Austin company that specializes in patient reactivation and retention, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Next Coast Ventures. More here.

Aim Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose goal is to enhance cybersecurity for companies using generative AI, raised a $10 million seed round led by YL Ventures, with Cyber Club London also chipping in. More here.

BBO Exchange, a crypto startup that is building a digital asset trading platform for institutions and individuals, raised a $2.7 million pre-seed round co-led by Hashed and Arrington Capital, with Consensys, CMS Holdings, Flow Traders, Manifold Trading, Mask Network, Nomura's Laser Digital, Arcane Group, Draper Dragon, Vessel Capital, Aulis Venture, Formless Capital, Press Start Capital, and One Piece Labs also piling on. The Block has more here.

Crescendo, a San Francisco startup that intends to leverage AI to improve customer service interactions, raised a $4.5 million seed round. General Catalyst was the deal lead. More here.

Finvest, a nascent app that aims to make it a cinch to invest in U.S. Treasury Bills, has raised $2.7 million in funding from an investor group that includes Bayhouse Capital, Unpopular Ventures, Y Combinator, Olive Tree Capital, Pioneer Fund, Fractal Ventures and a group of angel investors, including former Airbnb executive Oliver Jung. TechCrunch has more here.

Haven Energy, a three-year-old Los Angeles startup that helps consumers to select and install home battery systems, raised a $7 million Series A round. Investors included Comcast Ventures, LifeX, TO VC, Habitat Partners, and existing investors Lerer Hippeau, Giant Ventures, and Raven One Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Inference.ai, a Palo Alto startup whose platform is designed to optimize the allocation of AI workloads to cloud-based GPUs in order to improve cost-efficiency and performance, raised a $4 million seed round co-led by Cherubic Ventures and Maple VC, with Fusion Fund also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Roofer.com, a four-year-old startup based in Arlington, Tex., that aims to modernize roofing inspections and estimates using drones and AI technology, raised a $7.5 million seed round led by Mucker Capital, with Soma Capital, HF0, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures, and HustleFund also stepping up. Dallas Innovates has more here.

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As AI costs soar, some startups consider selling.

A new research paper shows how startups price options at a sharp discount just weeks before their IPO in order to reward key executives. “They just slide in these equity grants at the last minute,” author Sven Riethmueller, a professor at Yale Law School, tells The New York Times. 

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen's personal CRP accounts appear to have been hacked to the tune of $112.5 million. According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, "NO Ripple-managed wallets were compromised. Full stop."

After notoriously flubbing an appearance at a September Code Conference event, X CEO Linda Yaccarino was one of the only "winners" at today's Senate hearing on child online safety.

Siri Srinivas is joining GradientVC as a partner. She was most recently a principal at Draper Associates. 

Sam Kirschner is moving to Village Global, where he will be a vice president. He previously served as an Operations Fellow at Gigascale Capital.

Y Combinator President Garry Tan’s online rant tweet may be deleted from X, however, the effects are lingering, especially for three San Francisco supervisors who say they have now received threats.

It's official: The Messenger, the online news startup that raised $50 million from billionaire Jimmy Finkelstein and others, is shutting down. The company is terminating all of its employees, who will not receive severance and will lose all health care benefits effective immediately. (Many - including, apparently, the editor-in-chief - learned about the news from a New York Times report.) TechCrunch has more here. 

23andMe was once worth $6 billion. Now, it's worth nearly $0.

Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin on four promising applications that could emerge at the intersection of crypto and AI.

The rise of techno-authoritarianism.

Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor, author and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, talks about generative AI's potential impact on productivity.

Instacart is removing AI-generated food pics after a Business Insider article spotted errata such as "a hot dog [with] the interior texture of a tomato."

The sun is on the verge of flipping. Stand by for some serious coronal mass ejections.

How Stevie Wonder led Ray Charles to a recording studio bathroom and other offbeat stories from the making of 1985's pop anthem, "We Are the World."

The fashion of San Francisco.

Geoffrey B. Small makes $100,000 sportscoats, and he's pretty picky about his clients. “We do bosswear,” he told GQ. “We’re making clothes for the guys that run things.”

An electric snowboard.

An iceless ice chest.

The perfect speedboat for catching flying fish.